This post was sponsored by Healthy Essentials from Johnson and Johnson.

If you are someone like myself who makes New Years resolutions, you start thinking about your resolutions way ahead of time. By the time January 1 rolls around, I usually have a long, long list of potential candidates for the upcoming year. Some are easy goals and some are way more challenging.

Do I keep them all?

Not even close. Ultimately, I’ll pick a handful to focus on, but I find if you have a bunch, you are more likely to make at least one of them stick. For this reason, I’m partnering with HEALTHY ESSENTIALS^® to make an ode to stand by at least 5 new healthy habits in 2016.

I’m happy with the amount of screen time my kids have, but I could do a better job monitoring what they are watching. I want the kids to spend that time watching or playing something somewhat educational as opposed to watching that egg-opening nonsense or the grown women playing with dolls that is so popular with the toddler set on YouTube

I’m not someone who checks email while I’m hanging out with the kids, but I am always taking pictures or filming. I think my whole family would appreciate some time when Mom wasn’t so focused on “capturing” it.

I say this every year and never do it, but I’m a grownup now and it’s about time. Plus, I need to set a better example for my kids. I can start by purchasing some LISTERINE^® COOL MINT^TM Floss.

I spend a good chunk of one-on-one time with Mazzy when I take her to school crosstown in the morning, but I don’t have that same kind of time with Harlow. It would be nice to set aside some time where I can fully focus on one kid or the other so it isn’t always a competition for my attention.

Beyond just staying hydrated, drinking water is good for your skin, your metabolism, your energy level, your joints— shall I go on?,I have bottles of water in my office fridge but somehow all I end up drinking is coffee every day. When I was young and single, I used to have a rule that for every alcoholic beverage I consumed at a bar, I had to have a glass of water in between. I should make that same rule with coffee.

When I used to go to the gym, I would focus on calorie burning cardio because I wanted to be as skinny as possible. (FYI, it never worked.) Now, my goals are different. I just want to be healthy as I get older so I’d like to focus more on strength training and stretching, which (BONUS!) I can accomplish at home.

I’m really good about moisturizing my face after the shower, but somewhere along the way I cut out moisturizing my body to save time. I think it’s time to bring this back with a moisturizer like AVEENO^® Stress Relief Moisturizing Lotion, Lubriderm^® Daily Moisture Lotion Shea + Calming Lavender Jasmine or NEOSPORIN^® ECZEMA ESSENTIALS^® Daily Moisturizing Cream. Otherwise, my skin is really going to suffer with age.

It might ultimately be impossible, but I would really like to enjoy the evening without rushing through to get to the end. Perhaps if my attitude changes, the kids would relax a bit more too?

This was my resolution last year and I think it’s a good reminder to keep this up. We’ve been going out more now that the kids are a bit older and it’s always a good thing to focus on just each other at least once a week.

Over the summer, I took Harlow to an alternative art festival. Not only did she absolutely love it, I appreciated it far more viewing it through her eyes as well. Mazzy is really into art and Harlow is really into dance— there is no better place to expose them to both than in New York City. No matter where we live, we can all take advantage of the opportunities we have around us.

This is a biggie and I am really bad at it. But seriously, I am 40 years old. I should not have break-outs anymore! I always use Neutrogena Foaming Facial Cleanser when I shower in the morning, but I need to start regularly using NEUTROGENA^® Naturals Purifying Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes before I go to sleep. Which brings me to my next resolution…

Your skin repairs itself overnight which help ward off wrinkles, something I have been obsessing over recently. NEUTROGENA^®Rapid Wrinkle Repair® Night Moisturizer used regularly every night could go a long way.

This is something we have begun since Mazzy and Harlow went to school this fall. So far so good and I want to keep it up. Growing up, my family always sat down for dinner together at night which was often our main moment of connection and conversation in the day. The girls are now the perfect age for it.

Before I had kids I used to eat super healthy. Now I allow myself more carbs and fried foods and dessert, without the guilt. That’s fine. I don’t want to take those away. But I do want to add back in some of the fruits and vegetables I’ve been missing. Salads aren’t nearly as big a staple as they should be in my diet.

It’s been way harder than I thought to find the time to write my book. I already have a hard time balancing my work and my family, so I don’t know where I thought the extra book writing time would come from! I handed in my first draft last week but edits are coming and I’ll need to make time for those too. I might have to take some time off blogging or take a weekend away from the family on my own. It’s a sacrifice for sure, but it might be necessary to finish something that is so important to me.

This probably starts with leaving my phone in the other room when I go to bed.

It’s hard to get everything done and certainly all of it done well, at work and in your personal life. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a good opportunity to make sure everything on your plate gets your full attention, including your kids.

I love them way more than my texts suggest. And a text is not a call, or so my parents tell me.

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